Paul Screeton, “A neglected masterpiece: Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge”

{1}

A NEGLECTED MASTERPIECE: ARCHAIC TRACKS ROUND CAMBRIDGE

by PAUL SCREETON

“For some strange reason this book has attracted almost no attention.”

The quote on the right was written by Allen Watkins, the only son of antiquarian author Alfred Watkins, in his biography of the rediscoverer of the system of prehistoric alignments (or alinements as Alfred Watkins and his son argued to be the more correct term) since referred to as leys. Initial findings of precisely aligned trackways dating from a period long before the Roman invasion were presented to an unsuspecting public – and alarmed archaeological fraternity – in his book Early British Trackways, when he was already elderly. Alfred Watkins was born in 1855 and his initial ley discoveries were presented in 1921. Alfred Watkins was also a prominent Herefordshire businessman, magistrate, school governor, former president of the Royal Photographic Society, an expert on flour milling and creator of Vagos bread, brewing expert, beekeeper, yet such a man of credibility and down-to-earth interests found himself in direct opposition to an archaeological hierarchy which then – as now – vilified or ignored his findings and has regarded those who support his views as being of a “lunatic fringe.”

Cheerfully and proudly I align myself as one of those most vociferous in supporting Alfred Watkins’s thesis.

But by making such a statement I do not entirely endorse every single assumption made by Alfred Watkins. What, however, I would argue is that the intellect and lively appreciation of topography displayed in his work is in accord with commonsensical deductions. The litmus test is simple. Read his books and use them by testing his leys with ruler and pencil.

Rather than discuss the philosophy of ley hunting (present views are far more occult-orientated today than they were in Watkins’s own) or argue the relevance and difficulties of statistical probability analyses of alignments (a currently hotly-debated topic), I choose to put his book Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge into a historical perspective of its writer’s work; for anyone wishing to learn the rudiments of actual practical ley hunting can easily purchase Watkins’s The Old Straight Track (Abacus paperback) or for a wider discussion of contemporary ley thinking my own Quicksilver Heritage (also Abacus; Thorsons hardback).

The initial quotation continues … “Yet it (this book) has many claims to be considered the best he ever wrote: it was also his last. His mind was wider and more mature than when he was writing Early British Trackways in the first flush of enthusiasm, and he was reaching out into the future, discovering, discovering.”

The new discovery here was “cardinal point alinements” and as Allen Watkins points out, his father anticipated by several years the grid pattern later emphasized by Major F.C. Tyler in his now-rare book.

Sadly Allen Watkins passed away last year. I was honoured that he was speaker at a meeting which I chaired in 1971 in Hereford to celebrate the 50th. anniversary of leys and Allen was always an enthusiastic supporter of ley hunting. He was educated at Cambridge University and when working in the city professionally as a chartered accountant was visited by his father for a few days.

In his book Alfred Watkins of Hereford, published in a limited edition of 325, he wrote: “Characteristically, he was quite indifferent to the University life and buildings, but mightily excited by an obscure mound of common earth in the urban district which called itself Cambridge Castle, and spent the whole of his time ferreting round it. That was Alfred {2} Watkins all over! He had discovered on the local map that Cambridge was an intriguing Ley-centre, so he had no time for rival attractions. In about two incredible months of feverish map-searching he had actually completed another book! Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge was published in 1932. It is an astonishing book especially to anyone who knew its origin: he might have lived in the district all his life. The amount of local information crammed into its 60 pages is staggering. My father had an appetite for local information; he just ate it up.”

I’ve sat upon Cambridge Castle and visited several of the city centre churches in Cambridge. Unfortunately for me there was not time to get out and about into the countryside and the same applied to Alfred Watkins. After his 1931 visit, Alfred Watkins wrote to his son asking if he would report on one of many leys touching the mound Cambridge Castle. Eager to test the validity of the ley, he took the day off, travelled by train to Royston and set off on foot for Strethall. As he strode through the beautiful Sky Counties scenery he noted a solitary figure ahead, walking towards him. They exchanged pleasantries about the weather, and when Allen mentioned that he had walked from Royston, the farm labourer commented: “Ah! Then you must ’a’ come by the old Roman road, sir. Now when I first came to these parts some of the older folk did used to say as they’d seen another old Roman road. It went straight from Strethall church to towards Cambridge.”

This was Alfred Watkins’s ley.

Allen Watkins, by simply indicating his route, as anyone would in conversation, had received valuable information. He commented in an article on the occasion in The Ley Hunter: “He must have read my mind in the way that a native countryman often does.” Allen then asked the man if he had ever seen the second road. “No sir, I never did, but I’ll tell you a funny thing about that old road. You can’t see it at all on the ground, but when the corn grows you can see exactly where the old road went by the poorer crop. I’ve often seen it.”

But it is not everyone who will be treated to such agreeable beginner’s luck, for as Allen wrote: “I go out in search of confirmatory evidence, and at the first place I stop, in the middle of a field miles from anywhere, a man marches up and, unasked, gives me exactly the kind of evidence I am looking for – first-hand field-observation. You may call this coincidence But is it? In the ley hunter’s notebook these ‘coincidences’ begin to accumulate. My father had a score of such experiences. Nothing gives so much confidence as unsolicited evidence from an unexpected quarter. In this instance the casual memories of an elderly man unearthed a valuable clue.”

Naturally, Alfred Watkins stressed the need for fieldwork in his books, and in the chapter in Archaic Tracks Round Cambridge where he briefly records the above discovery by his son, he notes that corroboration on the ground normally follows map evidence.

At the end of this volume he stated: “Adventure lies lurking in these lines where I point the way for younger feet than mine … who will strike the trail?”